WASHINGTON (AP) — Labor regulators are set to propose sweeping new rules
Tuesday that would dramatically speed up the time frame for union elections,
a move that could make it easier for struggling unions to organize new
members, and cut the time businesses have to mount anti-union campaigns.

A copy of the planned rules, to be announced by the National Labor Relations
Board, was obtained by The Associated Press. The proposal is expected to
irritate Republicans and business groups who have complained about the
board’s pro-labor actions.

Most labor elections currently take place within 45-60 days after a union
gathers enough signatures to file a petition, a time many companies use to
discourage workers from unionizing. The new plan could cut that time by days
or even weeks — depending on the case — by simplifying procedures, deferring
litigation and setting shorter deadlines for hearings and filings.

But it does not impose a specific deadline for elections, as many labor
leaders had hoped for. Canada, for example, requires such elections to take
place in as little as 5 to 10 days.

The plan would “better insure that employees’ votes may be recorded
accurately, efficiently and speedily,” said the board’s majority, led 3-1 by
Democrats.

Passage would be a victory for labor unions that have long complained about
employers using procedural delays and litigation to hold up elections and
intimidate workers. Some employers hire so-called “union busting” consulting
firms to produce videotapes, draft talking points or create brochures to
deter unionizing.

Lynn Rhinehart, general counsel of the AFL-CIO, has called current union
election procedures “a very cumbersome process that gets bogged down in
litigation.”

“If the board is going to try to address some of the reasons for delay in
the election process, that would be a positive thing,” she said in an
interview.

before the proposed rule was announced. “Delay in the process has been a
perennial problem.”

The board’s lone Republican, Brian Hayes, issued a vigorous dissent, saying
the proposal would result in the type of “quickie elections” union leaders
have long sought. Hayes claimed elections could be held in as little as 10
to 21 days from the filing of a petition, giving employers less of a chance
to make their case.

“Make no mistake, the principal purpose for this radical manipulation of our
election process is to minimize or, rather, to effectively eviscerate an
employer’s legitimate opportunity to express its views about collective
bargaining,” Hayes wrote.

The board will take 75 days to review comments and replies before making a
decision on whether the rule should become final.

Union membership has steadily declined from its peak of about 20 percent in
the 1980s to just to 11.9 percent of all workers, and just 6.9 percent of
the private sector. Many members blame increasingly aggressive anti-union
tactics, but they have tried without success to beef up federal penalties
for what they say are growing instances of intimidation and threats against
workers.

Labor leaders made a major push in 2009 for Congress to pass so-called “card
check” legislation that would have increased penalties for such violations
and made it easier for unions to organize workers by signing cards instead
of holding secret-ballot elections. But the measure failed to garner a
filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Since then, labor has pinned its
hopes for a revival on action at the NLRB, the Labor Department and other
sympathetic administrative agencies.

The board has not disappointed. It has cracked down on businesses that fire
employees during union organizing drives and proposed rules that would
require all business to display posters explaining union rights. In perhaps
the most prominent case, the NRLB’s acting general counsel filed a
controversial lawsuit earlier this year that accused Boeing Co. of
retaliating against union workers in Washington state by placing a new
assembly line for the Dreamliner 787 in South Carolina, a right-to-work
state.

The proposed rule to be announced Tuesday could be another step in helping
unions halt the membership decline and organize more workers. It would:

— Allow electronic filing of petitions and other documents to speed up
processing.

— Set pre-election hearings to begin 7 days after a petition is filed.

— Defer litigation of eligibility issues involving less than 20 percent of
the bargaining unit until after the election.